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Are there any safe ways to differentiate identical birds (other than leg rings)

jermajay

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I have 2 lorikeets that I currently tell apart because one is fully clipped and one is only half clipped (they are moulting now and I will not be clipping them when they do, and the one wing clip is a confidant flyer, she isn't off balance at all or I would get a vet to even it out, but it seems unnecessary), and I am soon going to be adopting another pair of lorikeets. My question is if there are any ways to tell them apart, because when I weigh them I would need to know who is who, so if one looses weight I know which one it is. I'm getting my two microchipped soon, and the new ones will come microchipped, are there microchip readers I can use to scan and see who is who? Otherwise, are there safe ways to use leg rings? Maybe little leather ones so they will snap if they get caught? Although they'd probably just chew it off, but anything similar?

I know a lot of people say you can tell from personality, however my ones are young and will go through changes with puberty, even from when we got them they completely switched personalities, also the new ones settling in will likely develop different personalities and behaviours too. My two also don't talk or have any specific words they say, and I'm not sure which ones I will be adopting but afaik none at the rescue say anything distinctive, and of course they could just learn it from each other.

I have inspected my ones for anything to tell them apart, but I can't see anything, even the little divets on their beak are the same.

Thanks in advance!
 

Zara

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Are their feet identical? What about any spots in their feathers?
 

expressmailtome

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Some breeders will put a small dot of nontoxic pet safe food coloring on the feathers on the bird's nape to identify that specific bird. Of course this will come off if the feathers become wet.
 

tka

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You can also dot non-toxic, pet-safe food colouring on their toes. Get a couple of colours so you can do something like

Blue dot, one foot
Blue dot, both feet
Red dot, one foot
Red dot, both feet
 

jermajay

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Are their feet identical? What about any spots in their feathers?
Feet are the same, there are some spots where a feather is gone but that will change when they moult. Right now they also have some stress bars that are different but that will also change too.
 

jermajay

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Some breeders will put a small dot of nontoxic pet safe food coloring on the feathers on the bird's nape to identify that specific bird. Of course this will come off if the feathers become wet.
That's a good idea, only the bathe twice a day, but I'll try food colouring on their feet like tka said, hopefully it shows up, their feet are dark grey
 

expressmailtome

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I forgot to mention it earlier, but there are home microchip scanners that you can buy.
 
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jermajay

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I forgot to mention it earlier, but there are home microchip scanners that you can buy.
That would be perfect! Do you know if you need to get a specific type for bird-sized microchips, or are they all the same?
 

expressmailtome

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That would be perfect! Do you know if you need to get a specific type for bird-sized microchips, or are they all the same?
As far as I know they are all the same, but you could ask the veterinarian that you have implant the microchips.
 
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